Carole Strayhorn: A Border Policy She’ll Pay For With Democrats’ Ideas
By Vince Leibowitz on Sep 27, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections
Carole Keeton Strayhorn has a border policy. Basically it consists of making Texas Rangers a Texas equivelant of the U.S. Border Patrol.
What’s entertaining to me, however, is how Strayhorn plans to pay for the idea:
She proposed funding them by merging the state’s Public Utilities Commission with the Railroad Commission — a move she said would save $18 million.
Wha what? This is not a new idea, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it is an idea that Sherry Boyles proposed during her 2002 run for Railroad Commissioner. Strayhorn first cribbed the idea back in 2003.
Where she gets the figure of $18 million in savings, however, is beyond me.
Back in 2003, Strayhorn said it would be $12.5 million. I can’t fathom that inflation has ballooned the savings up that much in a few years:
One of my recommendations has a direct impact on your industry. I have recommended that we combine the Texas Railroad Commission and the Public Utility Commission into a new agency, the Texas Energy and Communications Commission. The governor would appoint the chairman from the three members that would still be elected statewide. This proposal will not only save Texans almost $12.5 million in the next biennium and more than $37 million each biennium thereafter, but more importantly, it will be an efficient way to regulate and ensure the importance of your industry well into the 21st century.
Vince — you are reading one reporter’s interpreatation. That idea is part of $8 billion in savings Strayhorn has identified, not the only way to pay for it. You should go to her website at onetoughgrandma.com to see the savings she identified.